Born September 14, 1996, Will Gold is a British Internet personality, Twitch streamer, and singer-songwriter. He started off in 2017 for his work with the group comedy YouTube channel SootHouse, where he made recurring appearances and was the primary editor and co-founder. He later started his channel, Wilbur Soot, on March 29, 2019. He put out his first single, “The ‘Nice Guy’ Ballad,” in January of 2018. His sixth single peaked at No 65 on the UK singles chart.
He created his main Youtube channel, Wilbur Soot, on March 29, 2019. The channel features video game-related content, most commonly, the 2011 sandbox game Minecraft. Gold also actively streams live on Twitch, where he has amassed over 3 million followers as of April 2021, making him the 41st most followed channel on the platform.
Aside from his beginnings, Soot is a musician from the Britpop genre, using his already coined internet fame to launch his career as a musician.
Bottom Line Up Top
Wilbur Soot mainly plays an S&P Woodland Sprucetop Acoustic guitar, a Fender Playes Series Telecaster with alnico pickups for his indie-brit sound, played through a Fender Deluxe reissue amp, with an interesting pedalboard setup. Keep on reading and find out!
Musical Career
Although primarily known as a YouTuber, Gold is also a musician and multi-instrumentalist. He released his first single, “The ‘Nice Guy Ballad,” in January 2018. Soot first charted with his sixth single, “Your New Boyfriend “, which also peaked on the UK Singles chart at 65.
This song even got attention from the UK Indie Chart and the Irish Singles Chart, where it peaked at 10 and 100, respectively. Wilbur has also appeared on several artist charts, including Billboard’s Emerging Artists Chart and Rolling Stone’s Top Chart Advance.
He’s cocky, nonchalant appearance and sweet vibe give him his likeable style. His music reminds me of The Kooks, Bloc Party, or Arctic Monkeys in their earlier days. His music is technically simple but is paired with witty lyrics and mainstream topics.
The same audience watching his youtube success is probably also the same audience that would be into his indie-pop style. His songs reflect that same personality that has made him famous on social media.
Related: Comprehensive Player’s Profile Guide.
Will Gold’s Band. Lovejoy
Lovejoy (abbreviated as LVJY) is an English indie rock band formed in Brighton in 2021. The band consists of Gold as a vocalist, songwriter, and lead guitarist, Joe Goldsmith as guitarist and songwriter, Mark Boardman as the drummer, and Ash Kabosu as bassist. Lovejoy has that young, punk rock attitude with good, powerful drum lines, easy guitar riffs, and well-written lyrics.
Wilbur first mentioned the band in a Twitch stream in April 2021, where he showed a very early preview of their song “One Day.” They released their debut EP Are You Alright? on May 9, 2021, along with the music video for “One Day.” The following day, they released the music video for the song “Taunt”.
Wilbur Soot’s Gear
The interesting thing about reviewing Wilbur’s gear, as opposed to other reviews we have done so far is that this young fellow still uses gear that we ordinary people can still afford. No Gibsons from ’56, limited edition cabinets, or artist series Fender starts.
Lovejoy’s strong point is musicality over gear or technical abilities. Still, check this out if you are looking to try and emulate Wilbur Soot or Lovejoy’s sound. Oh, and get yourself some Dunlop Tortex Standard 0.60mm picks.
Guitars
Simon and Patrick Woodland CT Spruce A3T:
This is a rare Canadian brand, and the acoustic CT Spruce A3T comes in as a cheaper version of the Woodland S&P series. This brand is commonly found throughout the UK, but it seems rare to find it across Europe. The S&P Woodland CW Spruce A3T features a solid spruce top with excellent projection.
The back and sides are made from a 3-way lamination and finished with a custom polished finish that gives S&P a great sounding quality across all their acoustic guitars.
The neck is made from silver leaf maple, with is less porous than mahogany and allows a much smoother finish, which gives the player a great feel to these guitars. Coyou’vethat with the cutaway and the A3T electronics, and you´ve got yourself a beauty.
They are hard to come across but are valued as well as guitars that easily double the price.
Fender Player Telecaster:
The Fender Player Telecaster is designed for beginner guitarists, featuring Fender’s iconic tones and style along with modern components. The classic single-cutaway Telecaster body is made of alder, offering a well-balanced and dynamic tone.
Both the neck and fingerboard are made of maple, enhancing the tone with plenty of brightness and sustain. The neck has a modern “C” profile, designed to offer comfort and smooth playing.
This guitar features a pair of single-wound pickups from the versatile Player series, which produce classic Fender tones packed with power.
Some purists might be put off by the sit’s bent blocks at the end of the neck, but all in all, it´s a great option for beginners that are looking to purchase a mid-level guitar. Still not comparable to the American-produced Fenders, but not bad at all.
Epiphone Emperor Swingster (Sunrise Orange):
This axe is versatile and comfortable like no other jazz guitar of its category. With its hollow body, it’s quite light despite being wide bottom-ended. The neck is a delight, with perhaps a thinner and more modern profile than you would expect in a guitar with this aesthetic.
The fretboard is perfect, with the ideal width to comfortably switch between chords and plucking. The Bigsby “wire” lever instead of the standard one is perfect visually and to the touch.
The SwingBucker pickups have a tremendous range and great dynamics to play almost anything, although the bottom end favors jazz or pop. Two of the pots have a push-pull option, but not to split the humbucker coil as usual: in this case, it’s a push-pull that puts them in series or parallel, adding extra punch (volume and treble) if you need it.
Related: Complete Epiphone Emperor Swingster Review
Bass Guitar
Wilbur Soot, as a self-taught player, has delved into several different instruments to play his home-produces songs. He played bass on his recordings, and keys too. The bass guitar he is seen using on several videos over the internet is his Ibanez SR500:
Ibanez SR500:
Although it is currently discontinued, I can assure you that the SR500 is very well made, like most Ibanez instruments. The body is made of mahogany with a beautiful brown finish. It is very light, considering the wood that has been used, which is largely due to the elegant contour of the body shape.
The neck is 5-piece jatoba/Bubinga with a rosewood fingerboard, the contrast with the brown color of the rest of the body is very aesthetically pleasing. The SR500 has 24 medium-sized frets with a 34″ scale and a 12″ neck radius, overall, it is a very suitable bass for players of all levels
. This type of wood combination is usually found in more expensive basses, so it is a delight for an instrument of this price, which without being extremely low, at around 700€, is a good price for this instrument.
Amplifiers
Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue:
This is the amp he was seen using for his album Pebble Brain. This amp is a reissue of a ubiquitous ´50s Fender amp that delivers on a classic clean and warm fender sound. It has 40w through 6L6 valves and a 12″ Eminence Special Design speaker. Its knobs include a 3-way EQ, reverb, and presence.
It suits Wilburs sound very much, though he will send it through some distortion pedals to get a more hot indie sound than what this amp is maybe intended for. Its cleans are perfect for the modern guitarist, and I find myself recommending this amp a lot.
Effect Pedals
Wilbur uses a specific effect chain for live shows with Lovejoy, where he uses, amongst others, these confirmed pedals:
Boss CH-1 Super Chorus:
Boss has very popular chorus pedals, and the new Super Chorus gives you a very crisp and clean stereo chorus. Used both for guitar and keys, it has two outputs and options for tweaking effect level, rate, and depth, aside from an EQ knob that works as a Tone knob would. Construction is as sturdy as all Boss pedals.
Marshall RF-1 Reflector:
This is a reverb pedal by Marshall at a decent price point. For under 100€, this “Harley Davidson” aesthetic-like pedal gives a decent reverb with six different reverb modes, time modulation, dampening, and output level.
Its metal box and silver heavy-duty knobs make it a great pedal for taking on a tour without having to worry about durability.
Electro-Harmonix Soul Food:
Although Electro-Harmonix wouldn’t be my go-to for distortion pedals, for 80€, I would check this out. It has top ratings online, and it´s small enough to squeeze into any pedalboard.
Simple enough you´ve got a “clean” boost with volume, drive and treble knobs. You can also power it via batteries.
Electro-Harmonix Canyon Delay & Looper:
This “bone” white pedal looks spectacular for a small delay pedal. Similar to the one above, it’s a “lightweight” pedal. It has a full three seconds extent of delay time, optional connection for an additional external pedal for tap-tempo, true bypass, and 10 delay modes- analog delay, shimmer delay, delay+octavizer…dig down and this pedal has a ton of features packed in.
If you´re picky about how analog delay sounds, this won´t be for you. If you´re more experimental, then give it a go!
TC Electronic Polytune 2 Mini:
This little tuning pedal is so useful now that it nearly seems industry standard. You can strum all strings at once and on its small screen, it will display what strings are properly tuned and which aren´t. A very useful feature for live gigs, between songs.
Want to know more about this Pedal? Check out our complete review here.
Other Gear
Rode NT1-A Condenser:
The Rode NT1A appeared in 2003 as an update to the NT1, one of the most popular condenser microphones on the market. The Nt1-A produces very little noise, offers pleasant warmth and good clarity.
It works with an extended dynamic range and has a high SPL capability. This microphone has a classic and simple design. It does not integrate pads or filters (exclusive to more expensive Rode microphones), but it is one of the quietest condenser microphones out there.
The Rode NT1A produces an internal noise of only 5dB, which translates to a signal-to-noise ratio of 88dB. Most condenser microphones have a signal-to-noise ratio of 75-88 dB.
Akai Professional MPK Mini MkIII:
The MPK mini offers a complete package with all the tools if you want to produce your own material. If you’ve been in the production world for a while, the new generation will be your Swiss Army Knife, useful for any situation and any time.
From keys, to drum pads, and general functions to pair up with your DAW, this is the next thing to get if you´re looking for a useful bit of equipment under 100€.
FAQ
Question: Why is Will Gold called Wilbur Soot?
Answer: This was Will´s idea from a long time ago, getting his inspiration from “a Tamagotchi forum”. As random as you can get.
Question: Is TommyInnit Will´s brother?
Answer: Yes, indeed. For those who don´t know, TommyInnit is his brother’s online alter ego and has amassed 7 million dollars at just 17 years old. His net worth is through the roof thanks to his social media and videogame channels.
Question: What is Wilbur Soot´s real name?
Answer: William Gold.
Question: Is Wilbur Soot in a band?
Answer: Yes, his band, where is the main songwriter is called Lovejoy (LVJY)
Question: What is Lovejoy?
Answer: English Indie rock 4-piece band from Brighton, their debut album aired on May 10, 2021, and was called “Are You Alright?”. This came out along with the music video for their song “One Day”, directed by Wilbur.
Summary
This young chap from Suffolk has risen to fame in such a short amount of time it´s admirable. He is one of the upcoming polifacetical artists of the 20th century, and is a very talented musician, amongst other things. His music and style are fresh and relatable. Another cheeky and quick-minded composer much like Alex Turner was (or is).
His songs have a blatant feminist touch, which I consider to be great. At first, you could make the mistake of not taking him seriously if you have only seen his streams or meme-like songs. But once I checked Lovejoy out, I considered him for what he is: A talented young musician on the surprise. His gear list is affordable, so if you are into this modern indie rock and intend to go for the same sounds, study this article thoroughly!Continue the Discussion – Join the forum
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